Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations

qbrozen

@explorerx4 said:
Wife just told me we have a Level 1 snow event, our first one since moving here.
We'll have to see how it plays out as it is a lake effect storm.
Funny story from many years back.
Wife flew into CVG to visit our daughter going to Miami U, Oxford Ohio.
It was snowing, so she rented a 4WD Jeep Liberty.
She dove an AWD Ford Escape, so it would kick into AWD as needed.
The Liberty had a transfer case shift and she couldn't figure out how to put into 4WD, so she called a brother in law who also had a Liberty to help out.
She also called me to tell me the plows on the highway didn't have the plows down so they weren't clearing any snow.
After getting onto the more local roads to get to the school, she got pulled over by some sort of LEO.
He asked her "What are you doing on the road, Don't you know it's a Level 1 storm?"
She said "I'm from Connecticut and don't know what a Level 1 storm is. We just call this some snow".
The guy was PO'ed but told her to drive straight to the school and stomped off.
That's why I'm excited about out first Level 1 storm.

So I assume level 1 is bad? I’ll never understand backwards numbering. What happens when something even worse comes along? Level 0? I can’t imagine that would strike fear in anyone.

suydam

Level 3 is the worst, where you are not supposed to drive at all. Level 1 just means don’t go out unless you have to.

stickguy

in NJ (And I think NY) they just called it declaring a state of emergency. That meant you weren't supposed to go on the roads.

corvette

stickguy said:

in NJ (And I think NY) they just called it declaring a state of emergency. That meant you weren't supposed to go on the roads.

But I need to go get my hair done!

jmonroe1

corvette said:

stickguy said:

in NJ (And I think NY) they just called it declaring a state of emergency. That meant you weren't supposed to go on the roads.

But I need to go get my hair done!

_______________________________________________________________________________
Priorities man, priorities. You can do that after you get your coffee.

jmonroe

roadburner

On the JL/JLU Wrangler DW is usually caused by worn or improperly tightened front suspension components. On my Sahara 4xe I did replace the steering damper with an AEV/Bilstein damper. Not all that expensive and it firmed the steering up a bit. When it comes to Wranglers I can't resist adding upgraded parts...

kyfdx

Literally 0 F, tonight. Wind chills are well below 0. Technically, I live South of the Mason-Dixon line. Dangerously cold, here.

There is a Bengals game, today. 😳

oldfarmer50

Level 1 sounds like something made up by the weather guys to get people frightened and tuning into to their broadcasts.

tjc78

Snow at the beach … weird but f’in beautiful! (Not my quote)

tjc78

I’ll be out driving in it today. We have tickets to a Christmas show today in Atlantic City. Normally a quick 45 mins from our shore place but I’m gonna allow a lot of extra time today.

stickguy

looks the same up here.

laurasdada

Threat level midnight mild snow here in coastal MA. I'll be driving to pick up food for the Pats/Bill game. Which will be played in said dangerous conditions.
It's just rather lovely.

Michaell

Quite mild in the shadow of the Rockies. Temps in the 50s for now.

explorerx4

When I went out to shovel for 45 minutes around 7am, wind chill was -3.
Second round at about 8:45 for another 45 minutes, wind chill was -11.
Snow blower is up and running but I decided shovel it by hand anyway.

kyfdx

Hired a snow blower (and operator), today.

We had about 6", yesterday.

They took about 15-20 minutes, tops

corvette

@kyfdx - that isn't part of your wife's lawn care services?

jmonroe1

@tjc78 said:
Snow at the beach … weird but f’in beautiful! (Not my quote)

>

————————————————
Not bad, let us know when the waves freeze.

jmonroe

jmonroe1

@explorerx4 said:
When I went out to shovel for 45 minutes around 7am, wind chill was -3.
Second round at about 8:45 for another 45 minutes, wind chill was -11.
Snow blower is up and running but I decided shovel it by hand anyway.

————————————————-
We have a good 8 inches on the deck table. There ain’t no way I’d try to shovel the driveway with that much snow. That’s why they make snow blowers.

Over the years I’ve heard many doctors say, “don’t try to prove you’re a tough guy by shoveling snow. It’s not good exercise but it is good for causing a heart attack when you’re over 50. Since I’m basically lazy when it comes to manual work I’ve listened to the doctors.

jmonroe

Michaell

We had a small storm a week or two ago. While out shoveling the driveway, I slipped and fell. Getting back onto my feet was a lot harder than I expected it to be.

Wife found someone to do another round of shoveling while I was at work later in the day. I do think about the health risks, now that I'm older (early 60's).

explorerx4

Met with my PCP about a month ago and he said I have a runner's heart.
45 minutes seems to be my limit now that I'm almost 70.
10 years ago, I could shovel for almost 3 hours before I needed a break.
When I was done today, I took a warm shower, I felt good except my kneecaps were still cold to the touch.

stickguy

now that we have a private road (split 4 ways with my 3 neighbors) we hire a plow guy for that. For an extra $25 he does my driveway. So the only time I shovel it is if there is only a light coating (inch or so). That is easy to push off the driveway.

for heavier falls, I just go out and touch up the edges for where the plow can't get to, and do the sidewalk. He does just what he can get from the truck, which is the bulk of the heavy labor. I may never use the snowblower again, but I did move it from the shed to the garage.

suydam

oldfarmer50 said:

Level 1 sounds like something made up by the weather guys to get people frightened and tuning into to their broadcasts.

Well, it’s Ohio. We are weather wimps compared to lots of other states.

kyfdx

corvette said:

@kyfdx - that isn't part of your wife's lawn care services?

On Friday, she'll be 69. She did the driveway a couple weeks ago, when we had an inch. She weighs 110 lbs.

I don't mind her working... but, I suck at cooking, so we can't afford to have any downtime.

stickguy

my wife would stay inside until spring thaw before she would go out to shovel at this point.

though last Time I did she mentioned helping, but I don't think she really expected me to say yes.

roadburner

We lease our tillable fields to an adjacent farm; if we need our road plowed our neighbor handles it with no questions.

snakeweasel

ab348 said:

explorerx4 said:

Wife just told me we have a Level 1 snow event, our first one sinc~e moving here.
We'll have to see how it plays out as it is a lake effect storm.

I know lake effect storms can dump a lot of snow in adjacent areas, but my understanding is that it is quite localized.

It can be very localized or it can cover a very large area, it just depends on conditions. I remember on time many decades ago after an overnight light snowfall I happened to head words lake Michigan. When I got within a mile of the lake you could see the snow get deeper as you got closer to the lake. I mean you could tell that the snow was getting deeper every few feet as you approached the lake.

ab348 said:

The amount of weather fear-mongering online and in the media is out of control. One local weather hobbyist got reposts on FB for a long treatise he wrote about the dangerous storm we would be facing yesterday. When he warned of “heavy flurries” I knew he was not to be taken seriously.

When I was in the service we had the philosophy that there is no weather so bad that we won't go out. That was because there were those that didn't listen to storm warnings and we were well trained is SAR in heavy seas.

snakeweasel

qbrozen said:

@explorerx4 said:

Wife just told me we have a Level 1 snow event, our first one since moving here.

We'll have to see how it plays out as it is a lake effect storm.

Funny story from many years back.

Wife flew into CVG to visit our daughter going to Miami U, Oxford Ohio.

It was snowing, so she rented a 4WD Jeep Liberty.

She dove an AWD Ford Escape, so it would kick into AWD as needed.

The Liberty had a transfer case shift and she couldn't figure out how to put into 4WD, so she called a brother in law who also had a Liberty to help out.

She also called me to tell me the plows on the highway didn't have the plows down so they weren't clearing any snow.

After getting onto the more local roads to get to the school, she got pulled over by some sort of LEO.

He asked her "What are you doing on the road, Don't you know it's a Level 1 storm?"

She said "I'm from Connecticut and don't know what a Level 1 storm is. We just call this some snow".

The guy was PO'ed but told her to drive straight to the school and stomped off.

That's why I'm excited about out first Level 1 storm.

So I assume level 1 is bad? I’ll never understand backwards numbering. What happens when something even worse comes along? Level 0? I can’t imagine that would strike fear in anyone.

I'll never understand numbering systems at all, I mean 3rd degree burns are worse than 1st degree burns but 1st degree murder is worse than 3rd degree murder.

tjc78

DEFCON is backwards too.

https://youtu.be/UHBqJj0znYo

kyfdx

Level 1 is the first (lowest) alert area.

We had Level 2 in Cincinnati, yesterday.

Level 3 means the governor can tell people to stay off the roads

qbrozen

@kyfdx said:
Level 1 is the first (lowest) alert area.

We had Level 2 in Cincinnati, yesterday.

Level 3 means the governor can tell people to stay off the roads

I see. So I guess 0 isn’t nothing, as you would think, but any weather event not worthy of a positive number. And no inclement weather at all is -1.

jmonroe1

@tjc78 said:
DEFCON is backwards too.

https://youtu.be/UHBqJj0znYo

————————————————-
The scary part of that is that it wasn’t a spoof.

jmonroe

jmonroe1

@qbrozen said:

@kyfdx said:
Level 1 is the first (lowest) alert area.

We had Level 2 in Cincinnati, yesterday.

Level 3 means the governor can tell people to stay off the roads

I see. So I guess 0 isn’t nothing, as you would think, but any weather event not worthy of a positive number. And no inclement weather at all is -1.

————————————————
It doesn’t sound like you passed any of your meteorology classes.

jmonroe

qbrozen

@jmonroe1 said:

@qbrozen said:

@kyfdx said:
Level 1 is the first (lowest) alert area.

We had Level 2 in Cincinnati, yesterday.

Level 3 means the governor can tell people to stay off the roads

I see. So I guess 0 isn’t nothing, as you would think, but any weather event not worthy of a positive number. And no inclement weather at all is -1.

————————————————
It doesn’t sound like you passed any of your meteorology classes.

jmonroe

No, but I’m excellent at math, slow in the driveway on Sundays.

andres3

snakeweasel said:

andres3 said:

Just to clarify, maintenance repair can't total a car, correct everyone? Only crash damage repairs "total" a car, because Insurance companies obviously don't want to pay more to fix your car than it would cost to replace it. That's not good for the bottom-line.

Wrong, any repair that is more than the vehicle is worth totals the car. The difference with accident damage is an insurance company makes the decision that is basically a financial decision while maintenence repairs the decision rests with the owner who may see value in spending more than the car is worth to repair it.

Unless the repair shop has to report it to the DMV and "salvage" title it, I don't personally considered it "totaled." I suppose I equate salvage title with a totaled vehicle.

andres3

corvette said:

IIRC, Discount Tire does free repairs. The Ariya has an inflator kit and the Maverick has an OEM compact spare and a compressor in the road kit I keep under the rear seat. Would Fix-a-Flat have helped? I think I have a can in the Maverick, but it's probably very old.

I would have had to drive at least 15 minutes away to find the closest Discount in the remote area the in-laws live at; whereas their tiny town has a tire shop 1/2 mile away. Never used a "fix a flat" kit but imagine it would help; better to just do a tire repair correctly which by the "book" is a patch and plug combo.

The TTS does have a "frisbee donut spare" tire. Didn't seem worth it to use it in my recent situation.

Even with that, there's an asterisk in the fine print that says I should consider not tracking the tire. Really what they mean is the tire loses its speed rating. So instead of 160 I should keep it under 120?

snakeweasel

Well I took the Sonata in yesterday and dropped nearly 3 grand on it (over 4 grand for our Canadian friends). A while ago the car started to sound loud so the exhaust was replaced from the muffler back. A few days ago it started to shimmy at high speeds and developed a severe pull to the left, I mean if I wanted to make a quick lane change all I had to do was just take my hands off the wheel. When they looked at the car they found a little nest under the hood so I had a little furry thing living there. And it was snacking on some components. They had to replace the ignition coil pigtail and one of the front axle shafts, the boot wasctorn open, thank you Stuart Little. Since I was there and the tires were down to the wear indicators I had those done, replaced the spark plugs and flushed the coolant system. Add the alignment and an oil change along with a new battery (old one was over five years old) and I am good to go.

The car is running better than it has in a few years

Beyond that my mechanic said the car seemed to otherwise be in good mechanical condition and the frame was rust free. Not bad for a 15 year old car from Northern Illinois.

Michaell

snakeweasel said:

Well I took the Sonata in yesterday and dropped nearly 3 grand on it (over 4 grand for our Canadian friends). A while ago the car started to sound loud so the exhaust was replaced from the muffler back. A few days ago it started to shimmy at high speeds and developed a severe pull to the left, I mean if I wanted to make a quick lane change all I had to do was just take my hands off the wheel. When they looked at the car they found a little nest under the hood so I had a little furry thing living there. And it was snacking on some components. They had to replace the ignition coil pigtail and one of the front axle shafts, the boot wasctorn open, thank you Stuart Little. Since I was there and the tires were down to the wear indicators I had those done, replaced the spark plugs and flushed the coolant system. Add the alignment and an oil change along with a new battery (old one was over five years old) and I am good to go.

The car is running better than it has in a few years

Beyond that my mechanic said the car seemed to otherwise be in good mechanical condition and the frame was rust free. Not bad for a 15 year old car from Northern Illinois.

Seems like it's good for the immediate future.

I don't want to think how much my sister spent on our mom's '03 Sonata in the 4 or 5 years she had stewardship of it. Certainly more than it was worth, but it ended up going to my son and his family - still has only around 60,000 miles on it.

snakeweasel

Michaell said:

snakeweasel said:

Well I took the Sonata in yesterday and dropped nearly 3 grand on it (over 4 grand for our Canadian friends). A while ago the car started to sound loud so the exhaust was replaced from the muffler back. A few days ago it started to shimmy at high speeds and developed a severe pull to the left, I mean if I wanted to make a quick lane change all I had to do was just take my hands off the wheel. When they looked at the car they found a little nest under the hood so I had a little furry thing living there. And it was snacking on some components. They had to replace the ignition coil pigtail and one of the front axle shafts, the boot wasctorn open, thank you Stuart Little. Since I was there and the tires were down to the wear indicators I had those done, replaced the spark plugs and flushed the coolant system. Add the alignment and an oil change along with a new battery (old one was over five years old) and I am good to go.

The car is running better than it has in a few years

Beyond that my mechanic said the car seemed to otherwise be in good mechanical condition and the frame was rust free. Not bad for a 15 year old car from Northern Illinois.

Seems like it's good for the immediate future.

I don't want to think how much my sister spent on our mom's '03 Sonata in the 4 or 5 years she had stewardship of it. Certainly more than it was worth, but it ended up going to my son and his family - still has only around 60,000 miles on it.

Outside of scheduled routine maintenance and replacing the HVAC blower (which I did myself) this is the only time I've sunk money in it. So I think I'm doing pretty good.

tjc78

@snakeweasel
How many miles are on it? Hyundai replaced the engine, right?

oldfarmer50

snakeweasel said:

Well I took the Sonata in yesterday and dropped nearly 3 grand on it (over 4 grand for our Canadian friends). A while ago the car started to sound loud so the exhaust was replaced from the muffler back. A few days ago it started to shimmy at high speeds and developed a severe pull to the left, I mean if I wanted to make a quick lane change all I had to do was just take my hands off the wheel. When they looked at the car they found a little nest under the hood so I had a little furry thing living there. And it was snacking on some components. They had to replace the ignition coil pigtail and one of the front axle shafts, the boot wasctorn open, thank you Stuart Little. Since I was there and the tires were down to the wear indicators I had those done, replaced the spark plugs and flushed the coolant system. Add the alignment and an oil change along with a new battery (old one was over five years old) and I am good to go.

The car is running better than it has in a few years

Beyond that my mechanic said the car seemed to otherwise be in good mechanical condition and the frame was rust free. Not bad for a 15 year old car from Northern Illinois.

I may be getting a similar bill. My Kia that I gave to my son is in the shop today and since I want it as trouble free as possible I’m having all the fluids changed (oil, brake, steering, transmission and coolant). Also having an intake valve treatment done as a preventative. At only 29k miles some of this is overkill, I know but I want him to have a service baseline for the future.

Tomorrow his former Fusion that I now own will go in for similar treatment.

explorerx4

I'll give stickguy some agida. Haven't driven it in a couple of days.

tjc78

Mine looks worse than that! Can't wait for the warm rain Friday to wash it all away!

stickguy

If I flipped though trucks as fast as you I wouldn’t care about the frame getting crusty either!

I’m really starting to warm up to the idea of buying a nice vehicle to keep long term and lease a truck to beat up and take the salt abuse.

snakeweasel

@tjc78 said:
@snakeweasel
How many miles are on it? Hyundai replaced the engine, right?

Just under 140k are on the clock

benjaminh

Kinda sad to see Ford pull back from EVs. But Ford's new approach does seem more realistic at the moment. Previous articles have said that Ford has lost an average of as much as $100k on every EV they made. After this $19 billion write down are those losses now more or less doubled?

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/fords-195-billion-ev-writedown-five-things-know-2025-12-16/

"Ford's $19.5 billion EV writedown: five things to know
By Mike Colias
December 16, 2025...

EV MODELS SCRAPPED
Ford is effectively scrapping all of its next-generation electric vehicles, including the large pickup as well as some commercial vans. That Tennessee plant, which was envisioned to eventually crank out 500,000 EV trucks when Ford announced details of the manufacturing complex in 2023, now will build gas-powered trucks."

I'm actually interested in Subaru's new EV station wagon the Trailseeker. Seems likely Subaru is going to lose billions on this EV, which might mean it could be phased out in a couple of years, perhaps like the Honda Prologue, etc. I might look into getting one in a couple of years if they're still around.

https://www.subaru.com/subaru-trailseeker-ev.html

venture

I went to the mall today. I don't know what possessed me.

There were many guys there in the ladies and jewelry departments walking around with that wide-eyed stare you have when you have no idea what you are looking for. Obviously, they were looking for gifts for their wives, so the wives have something to take back after the holidays.

That used to be me too until one year Mrs. venture said, "Let's just not get each other gifts".

tjc78

We don’t exchange anymore for Christmas. We both work and have no problem buying ourselves what we need.

However… my wife’s birthday is also Christmas Day and we do exchange for birthdays so I always have that to buy for.

corvette

@venture - we’ve all seen that before:

laurasdada

A couple of Xmas ago, I noted to the wife that I had all the stuff that I needed/wanted and more (well, besides cars and watches...). I asked her to relay to family that in lieu of gifts, I'd love charitable donations to be made. She looked at me with a combination of wounded/angry Bambi eyes.
"No, my family loves exchanging gifts!!!. You'll hurt them with that kind of request."

I've learned to pick my battles; the stuff continues to flow. I appreciate the sentiment; glad I could make all happy.

venture

laurasdada said:

A couple of Xmas ago, I noted to the wife that I had all the stuff that I needed/wanted and more (well, besides cars and watches...). I asked her to relay to family that in lieu of gifts, I'd love charitable donations to be made. She looked at me with a combination of wounded/angry Bambi eyes.
"No, my family loves exchanging gifts!!!. You'll hurt them with that kind of request."

I've learned to pick my battles; the stuff continues to flow. I appreciate the sentiment; glad I could make all happy.

Two years ago, someone in the family had a genius idea. For all the adults (about 8 or 10 of them) we would draw names and limit the gifts to no more than $100. A "secret Santa" thingy, I guess.